Concluding Mark #7 Reaching out to the Broken
| A man with leprosy came to Him and begged Him on his knees, "If You are willing, You can make me clean." Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the man. "I am willing," He said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. (Mark1:40-42) |
Mark's Gospel is filled with broken people:
- lepers,
- paralytics,
- demoniacs,
- grieving parents,
- outcasts, failures,
- doubters,
- and fearful disciples.
Our passage records the first healing miracle in Mark and it is most certainly not the last!
The man has leprosy. It is highly contagious.
People recoiled from those who had leprosy.
They chased them with literal and verbal sticks and stones.
The man comes and begs from his knees.
The disciples and crowd probably gasped and retreated.
All of a sudden Jesus isn't being mobbed or crowded.
They're all ten steps back.
The man is begging and Jesus is standing there.
"If you are willing... " the man implores
Jesus is filled with compassion. (In Greek the word implies an intense emotion)
Instead of stepping away - Jesus steps in.
Instead of recoiling - Jesus touches - probably embraces.
And the man is immediately clean.
This is what love is.
Throughout Mark Jesus consistently moves toward broken, not away from them.
We see it again and again:
- Jesus touches the untouchable.
- Jesus forgives the guilty.
- Jesus restores the ashamed.
- Jesus calls the unlikely.
Jesus' church needs to be like this too.
Church is not a display cabinet for saints
but a hospital for the broken.
